2021
March
Moneystone determination put back yet again.
Quarry 3 stability is the key issue.
February
The first two of what could be many planning
applications on the former Bolton,s Copper Works site has just
become visible on the Staffs Moorlands DC
website.
SMD/2020/0684 – Froghall Wharf, Froghall
Road
Proposed Development: Residential development (49
dwellings) including formation of new access, landscaping and
associated works, and restoration of listed farmhouse and re-use as
a dwelling house.
SMD/2020/0685 – Froghall Wharf, Froghall Road,
Froghall
Proposed Development: Listed building consent for a
residential development, including formation of new access,
landscaping and associated works, and restoration of listed
farmhouse and re-use as a dwelling
house.
For historical reference the whole development
was envisaged in a site specific Masterplan drawn up in
2011.
The key planning reference is the Churnet Valley
Masterplan adopted by the Council in 2014.
Here is an extract from a letter prepared bt
Steve Wood of the Cauldon Uttoxeter Canal Trust. The CVCS fully
support the fight against any application which stops the canal
being restored,
" I as contacted by a heritage adviser working for the current
owners early last year and invited to look at the site with them.
We were subsequently allowed to survey the site last December and
established that not only is a section of the original canal edge
visible at ground level, but also that the ground level created
when the railway line was laid up the flight of locks is higher
than the previous canal level, raising the very real possibility
that one or more of the locks still exists below ground level. This
would be consistent with our findings elsewhere on the canal where
features have been buried rather than removed.
The first lock and basin of the Uttoxeter Canal were reopened
in 2005, in a £625k partnership project between volunteers,
British Waterways, local and regional authorities, backed by
the European Regional Development Fund. The
2009 restoration feasibility study demonstrated that the
line of the canal from Froghall as far as Denstone was largely
extant and could be restored with minimal deviations from the
original line in Oakamoor and Alton, and in a few places where
it was crossed by the later railway line. New alignments for
the canal in all these locations have been identified. In
2012, the Trust began restoration works further down the canal
at Crumpwood, in the project we all know as CVLLP7. The grant of
£105k was used to restore Bridge 70, clear the line of the
canal and towpath in that area, laying 250m of new
towpath in the process. We were greatly assisted by CVLLP partners
in various parts of this project, and especially by Staffs
Moorlands district Council whose legal team found a way for the
trust to acquire Bridge 70 and complete the works. Other Partners
from SWT, RSPB and SCC were hugely helpful in different ways with
both this project and the milepost reinstatement project
CVLLP8.
Since then volunteers have cleared an additional 1.5km of
towpath and have uncovered the site of three locks and other
heritage structures along the line of
the canal, including the grade II listed and unique
Crumpwood Weir, where boats previously crossed the River
Churnet. We also completed the line of mileposts all the way to
Uttoxeter, and have created a walking route from the town into the
valley as far as Oakamoor. Several of you will have joined our site
visit after a Partnership Board meeting at Alton Castle, when we
started to talk about a future project to put a section of canal
back into water, potentially for use by young canoeists from Kenelm
Trust, and to reinstate over a mile of towpath for walkers. We are
still keen to progress this project, though like many other
organisations the last 12 months have all but stopped our volunteer
activities.
The planning application therefore comes as a huge blow to us and
we are contacting both our own supporters and other friends in the
Churnet Valley, including yourselves, to enlist any support we can
in preserving the line of the canal through Froghall. It may be
that you feel that your organisation is able to declare its support
for us as a CVLLP Partner in a response to the planning
application, or that you have individual team members or volunteers
who would be happy to do this. We would be grateful for any support
that you might be able to give at what is frankly a make or break
moment for the Trust. If this application goes through there is
literally no alternative way to restore the canal until houses
which have not yet even been built are demolished, which will not
be in any of our lifetimes.
The application, SMD/2020/0684, may be viewed by following
this link
http://publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet?PKID=142566
October
Moneystone Quarry Applications
SMD/2019/0646 the reserved matters pertaining to
the Outline Permission granted for SMD/2016/0378
It looks as if we may be approaching decision
date as the PAC is now scheduled for 12th November 2020
Whiston Golf Course Remodelling
Staffordshire County Council's Planning
Applications Committee has refused this application. It is now up
to the Applicant to decide what to do. The decision can be appealed
within a 6 month time limit. Whiston residents remain vigilant in
case of unlawful activity.